Tips for saving for a new PC?

[pankakes123]

Many people aren't very good at saving money. I'm one of those people. I would really love to have a good PC build, and I would like to build it myself so I spend less. With the components I have in mind, the build should be around 1000 dollars. I already tried saving once for a PC and the 300 dollars I had set aside burnt a hole through my pocket and I ended up spending it all on N64 collecting. Now I have 200 dollars saved up, but I'm afraid I'll be stupid and blow it off in a day sooner or later. This PC is really important to me because I love games and I also make a lot of different gaming videos and other films with my friends so I need a powerful PC for videos as well. So, I would really appreciate some tips on saving, and earning, money. Also, this is the first PC I'll be building myself, so any pointers on building it would be awesome too.

Right now I have in mind for components:
ASRock 990FX Professional (Motherboard)
AMD Phenom X6 1100t Black Edition 3.3 GHZ (CPU)
Saphire Radeon 6850 (GPU)
Corsair 6GB RAM and Corsair 800 Watts Power Supply
And a cool Mid tower case I found for 70 dollars.

I know those aren't everything I need, for example I still need a harddrive and sound card.

[BoringSupreez]

Give what money you save to your parents, and tell them not to let you have it back unless you buy a PC with it.

[pankakes123]

Give what money you save to your parents, and tell them not to let you have it back unless you buy a PC with it.

Hey, that's actually a good idea! Thanks, I'll do that.

[Nemoide]

The good thing about saving for a computer is that the longer you put off buying it, the more powerful PC you end up with.

I'd say the best advice is to just consistently squirrel money away. Take some amount you can spare every week and put it away, just letting it grow. Savings account, a rarely used drawer, hallowed out book, anyplace works, so long as you keep adding to it.
If that's really tough for you, you could just buy each computer component as soon as you can afford it. So first get a case, then a power supply, then a motherboard, etc.

And don't be afraid to go with a slightly weaker PC than is your current ideal. I had to build my current PC in a huge rush, so I got a motherboard with a newly designed AM2 socket, which would allow for easy upgrades later on (this was maybe 5 or 6 years ago). Later, when CPUs designed for AM2 were on the way out, I ordered a more powerful one for cheap. You can also always add RAM and that will get less expensive over time, so you might want to just start off with 2GB or so.

Just some thoughts! Hopefully they can be of some use!

[sabrage]

No, don't buy PC parts in waves. By the time you complete your build the older parts you were buying will be obsolete and better hardware will be available at the price you paid. Don't spend your money, that's how you save. I'm assuming you don't have bills like food and rent and gas to pay so you should be set with a little self-control.

[BananaXX]

No, don't buy PC parts in waves. By the time you complete your build the older parts you were buying will be obsolete and better hardware will be available at the price you paid. Don't spend your money, that's how you save. I'm assuming you don't have bills like food and rent and gas to pay so you should be set with a little self-control.

Yea, I would recommend getting everything at once as well. I've been upgrading my PC in waves ever since about '07 and I never really feel happy with it, so I'm definitely an advocate of just saving up the money.

[Cronozilla]

No, don't buy PC parts in waves. By the time you complete your build the older parts you were buying will be obsolete and better hardware will be available at the price you paid. Don't spend your money, that's how you save. I'm assuming you don't have bills like food and rent and gas to pay so you should be set with a little self-control.

Yes, exactly.

Buying one part at a time is one of the worst ways you could buy a computer.

I'd suggest getting a checking account from a credit union with a savings account. Put the money, as you have it, into the savings account and it won't be touchable from your debit card (you have to explicitly transfer the money over to the checking account) and if you take upwards of a year to save, you'll actually earn money on it. (You should look at local Credit Unions that aren't First Tech and ask your parents to help you get an account)

Also, you know, it'll give you some life lessons on saving fuluus that wouldn't hurt.

[sabrage]

Nothing wrong with upgrading as-needed - my base unit was built in 2007 and I've upgraded precious little since - but there is no economic or logical reason to buy parts in stages.

[Cronozilla]

Blarg, I just posted, but I wanted to say something related to what Sabrage is saying.

It actually makes a lot of sense to think about how the PC would be upgraded in a couple years. It means sinking in about $50-$100 more now ... but having a very cheap upgrade later.

This means choosing the right board, and the right starter sticks of RAM (if the board supports 32GB of RAM and has 4 slots, this means each slot supports up to 8GB per stick ... so it wouldn't make sense to put in 2 x 4GB sticks just because they're $10 less in total, since when you eventually upgrade the RAM, you'd just be replacing something you already bought instead of adding to it), and putting money into smarter areas like the GPU over the CPU (since it'll all run the same anyway, but for less. The GPU is also the most expensive single component ... it's a good idea to not skimp on it or be overtly conservative to stick to a budget just so you can get whatever CPU ... CPUs drop in price all the time, and it's very likely that the next batch will be compatible with your system and cheaper. While GPU prices ... the good cards ... don't drop so drastically anymore after medium-high iterations of a chipset come out.)

[isiolia]

I tend to prefer an "out of sight out of mind" way of saving money. Pretty much as suggested, have money in savings (or at another financial institution altogether) and only look at what you've got in checking when making minor purchasing decisions. If you have a job with automatic deposit, you can probably set something up to shift a few bucks over every time you get paid.


Far as what to target, I'd second to not buy things piecemeal, at least not core components. I'd extend that by saying don't buy placeholder parts (in most cases). If you're going to skimp, do so on stuff you can expand later, like storage or RAM. Most motherboards also have integrated audio, so you can use that to start, and later get a sound card or USB DAC if onboard proves insufficient. While it makes little sense with a gaming focus, a lot of CPUs include a graphics core as well, so technically you could use that for older games, emulation, video editing, and so on while you save for a good card.

I would also not get too set on any particular set of hardware until you've got the money. As a minor critique on your listed build, while I wouldn't particularly advise going with AMD right now either way, you might want to look at their current offerings instead. The only Phenom II X6 still widely available seems to be the 1045T, and I'd have to assume the board you mean is ASRock's Fatal1ty branded one, which is probably too expensive for your budget (or for a dead platform). I would also try to fit more GPU into a $1k build. Nothing inherently wrong with a 6850, but with that kind of budget, for a gaming build, I'd figure at least another $100 towards the GPU.
That is, assuming you were looking at buying new. If you've got some other deal, then never mind